The Ice Storm . Austin Chronicle . 06-29-98

The Ice Storm

DIRECTED BY: Ang Lee

REVIEWED: 06-29-98

Kitschy Seventies comedy does battle with some painful dramatics in Ang Lee's highly regarded The Ice Storm, and the film is a bit of a puzzle when it comes to separating the two. It's 1973, and the Sexual Revolution is in full bloom. So are the thick shag carpets, glass-bead necklaces, Watergate hearings, and teen angst. And it's an arctic Thanksgiving weekend in Connecticut when these things all come together at the home of a small and highly dysfunctional family. Kline and Allen are the hapless parents of Maguire and Ricci, and everyone's up to no good in the sex department. Dad is having an affair with the next-door neighbor Weaver, and the kids are ripe for all manner of trouble with show-and-tell games, experimental drugs, et al. Oh, and Mom is pretty pissed about all of this. Taken the wrong way, all of this can be downright hilarious, and for the first hour, it is, as reminiscing over the maroon tux I wore to my cousin's wedding wins out over the melodrama behind the Seventies jokes, at least for me anyway. After that hour, you are on your own. While there are plenty of questions at the root of The Ice Storm, the film unfortunately feels awfully light on any answers. Still, it's quite worth the rental price.

--Christopher Null

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Capsule Reviews
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Other Films by Ang Lee
Ride With the Devil
Sense and Sensibility

Film Vault Suggested Links
Any Given Sunday
West Beirut
Instinct

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